Bahrain Mirror (AP): Bahrain's public prosecutor says the trial of 24 people accused of forming a local Islamic State branch and plotting attacks will begin Thursday.

The prosecutor said Wednesday on an official Twitter account that the 24 are charged with planning to commit terrorist acts and plotting to use arms and explosives to change the government by force. It says eight of the individuals are in jail and the rest are fugitives.

It says authorities received information in February that the alleged militants were training in Syria.

Last week a previously unknown group calling itself the Bahrain Province of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly shooting attack on Shiite worshippers in eastern Saudi Arabia.

Bahrain is a Shiite-majority Gulf state ruled by a Sunni monarchy.